The Reveal
by DFM
Summary: Alexis finally learns Beckett's hiding place. Sequel to Alexis vs Beckett and You Can Tell Me.


**The Reveal**

**Summary:** Alexis finally learns Beckett's hiding place. Sequel to _Alexis vs Beckett_ and _You Can Tell Me_.

**Pairing:** Castle/Beckett

**A/N: **This is the last story in this trilogy! I hope you guys like it :D

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><p>"Alright, baby bird, report in." Castle smiled at his wide awake daughter as she sat in front of the tree on Christmas morning. The other two women in the room weren't nearly as alert: his mother was on her third cup of coffee that morning and still wasn't nearly as loquacious as she normally was, while Beckett was tucked into his side, fighting valiantly to keep her eyes open. Apparently, a 4 am wake-up call wasn't for everybody.<p>

Alexis smiled brightly, the picture of holiday cheer. She'd already given each of the adults a present from her, which remained unwrapped in front of them, and had just been waiting for his signal to reveal the ones she'd found. She reached under the tree and distributed three gifts: one to her father, Beckett, and herself. "Gram's were in her hope chest," she shot her grandmother a knowing look, "like every year."

Martha pointed a 'don't sass me' finger at Alexis. "I'm lulling you into a false sense of security. One year I'm going to put them somewhere completely different and you'll be completely flummoxed."

"Mother, you've been hiding presents in your hope chest since I was little; exactly how long have you been trying to lull her?"

"Oh, hush."

Alexis pulled out three more, this time handing them over to her grandmother, Beckett, and again keeping one for herself. "Dad, you did pretty well this year; it took me a couple of weeks to find them behind the painting in your office." Her eyes twinkled, as she couldn't help teasing, "Though most of that was trying to find a time when you were far enough away from your office for me to search it."

Castle tipped an invisible hat in her direction, before leaning back to wait for Alexis to pull out the last three presents. When she didn't, just paused to take one last glance around the apartment, Castle and his mother exchanged a surprised look. _No one_ hid presents from Alexis, and certainly not on their first try.

"Okay," Alexis threw her hands up in resignation, "where the heck are they, Kate?"

Beckett blinked, as if just coming fully into the conversation. All of the other occupants of the room looked at her expectantly. "Oh, they're in the back of your closet, Castle."

Three jaws dropped wide open. It was quite possibly the most obvious hiding place in the house, how...?

"You can't move them after the 1st of December," Alexis protested.

"I didn't," Beckett said simply, unfazed.

Castle shook his head at his girlfriend. "I'm going to have to back Alexis up on this one, Beckett. There were only decoy presents in there."

"Were there?"

"Yes!" Castle and Alexis protested at the same time, before Alexis added again, "Unless they were moved there recently."

"Beckett, the rules say -"

Arching an eyebrow at Castle, Beckett recited, "1) All presents must be bought and hidden before 11:59 pm on November 30th. 2) No presents may be moved from their hiding place as of December 1st. 3) Gifts may not be hidden outside of the loft, but may be visually hidden by any means. 4) You may not verbally deceive the seeker as to the presents' location, but you do not have to answer any questions directly or indirectly. Did I miss anything?"

"No, but -"

"I never _said_ that the presents in the back of your closet, or any of the others for that matter, were decoys."

"So..." Alexis said slowly. "That means that the real presents were..."

"Disguised as decoys, yes."

Alexis and Martha looked at her with a mixture of amusement and respect.

"Wow, that's..."

"Darling, you-"

Castle made a strangled sound as he stared at his girlfriend. "I want you so bad right now."

"Dad! Ew!"

"Richard, really..."

Beckett simply chuckled. "Should I go get the presents?"

Three loud replies of "yes!" followed her as she stood to go into the other room.


End file.
